Description
The civil war in Syria, BREXIT and the unexpected election of Donald Trump as American president all underline the continued importance of national identity, power and security. This course teaches you the skills necessary to study how different ideas about these key concepts can affect geopolitical conflicts.

How stable and uncontested are the identities of nation-states such as Spain, Turkey and Ukraine? Why do we see conflicting perspectives on the power of China, Germany, India, Russia and the United States? And in which ways can the security threats to the world, its regions and particular countries be assessed? To answer these questions, you do two individual assignments in which you analyze a political speech and a think-tank report from a country of your choice. In the first group assignment, you try to measure the global power of one of the aforementioned countries. The second group assignment concerns the writing of scenarios about international security threats, based on the future identities and power relations of China, Germany, India, Russia and the United States. You present all your findings in class. Interactive lectures and roundtable discussions help you prepare for your assignments. The companion course is Geopolitical Conflict Analysis 2: Geographical Factors, Geostrategy and Scenario Planning Tools.

Goals

▪ Designing an analytical framework to study the role of identity, power and security in geopolitical conflicts

▪ Understanding how a nation-state can be seen, and why one single, widely accepted definition does not exist

▪ Recognizing patterns in how politicians and experts present us their views on the world, regions and countries

Prerequisites

▪ Strong motivation and good command of English are essential to get a pass for the course.

Please note that it is not required to do some reading before the course. If you like to read something, select a book that is closest to your research interests or ask Leonhardt for personal reading advice. For more suggested reading materials, check the following reading lists.

Many thanks for your prompt response. I am interested in a course similar to the one you run at the Summer School. Would the guest lectures be as extensive as the course run at the summer school? Would you consider giving a similar course at Oxford, Cambridge or London?

Dear Adriana,
Thanks for your question. Accommodation is not included in the course fee. It is however affordable and can be booked here: http://www.maastrichthousing.nl/ Any further questions?
Kind regards,
Leonhardt